The number of endoscopy procedures carried out has increased since services were centralised at Noble’s Hospital.

There was anger in some quarters when DHSC stopped endoscopy services at Ramsey Cottage Hospital, but at the time, health chiefs said centralisation was needed to cut waiting lists, which had put patient safety at risk.

In the House of Keys on Tuesday, David Ashford (Douglas North) asked if there had been an improvement.

In October 2016, the average number of endoscopy procedures was 64 per week - this increased to 101 in October this year.

Ann Corlett (Douglas Central), standing in for Health Minister Kate Beecroft, said: ’This increase in activity is being sustained through improved deployment of medical and nursing resources and better planning. ’We are still on track to reduce our waiting list to six weeks by April 2018.’

Currently there are 17 sessions held per week, which Mrs Corlett said was four more than when the service was split between Noble’s and Ramsey. ’The increase has been achieved with no additional investment in the nursing or medical workforce.’

She added ’Although the Noble’s endoscopy unit has the physical capacity to operate 30 sessions a week, we are not staffed - from a medical or nursing point of view - to run that many lists, nor do we need to, as we are making significant headway in reducing our waiting list using the current resource and capacity available.’

Previously, the DHSC said some patients were waiting up to 33 weeks, but both Ramsey Cottage Hospital’s welfare trustees and the League of Friends complained about a lack of consultation over the centralisation.

Mr Ashford referred to a comment by Mrs Beecroft in July, that changes would create 30 additional procedures per week, but, in answer to a written question last month, the Minister said there had been 387 additional procedures over five months.If she had been correct, there should have been over 600,’ he said.